RUTACA Airlines Flight 225
Douglas C-47A · Engine failure leading to loss of control
From Canaima Airport (CAJ) to Del Caribe Santiago Mariño International Airport (PMV)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA01WA016
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
- Event fatalities
- 25 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 1
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 3 · all on the ground
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Unknown
Douglas C-47A
- Aircraft type
- Douglas C-47
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- YV-224C
- Operator
- RUTACA Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- 24
- Route
- From Canaima Airport (CAJ)To Del Caribe Santiago Mariño International Airport (PMV)
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Non-U.S., Commercial
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Not recorded
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Not recorded
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Estimated position: Ciudad Bolívar, the place the Wikipedia article names. Not the accident site.
From the Wikipedia article
RUTACA Airlines Flight 225 (5R225/RUC225) was a domestic tourist passenger flight, operated by RUTACA Airlines from Canaima Airport to Santiago Mariño Caribbean International Airport that crashed during a refueling stop in Tomás de Heres Airport in Ciudad Bolívar, Venezuela on 25 January 2001. The aircraft was carrying 24 passengers and crew members. The aircraft, a Douglas C-47A, crashed into a shantytown shortly after takeoff from Ciudad Bolívar, killing everyone on board. Eyewitnesses stated that an engine failure had occurred.
Flight
The flight took off from Canaima Airport in Canaima to the Caribbean Island of Isla Margarita with a refueling stop in Ciudad Bolívar. The aircraft was carrying 20 passengers and 4 crew members, piloted by Captain Ángel López and co-piloted by Captain Walter Manríquez.
Shortly after takeoff from Tomás de Heres Airport, the aircraft suddenly lost altitude and the crew attempted to return to the airport. Witnesses recalled that one engine appeared to be on fire. The aircraft crashed into a large tree and exploded on impact
with debris raining down on the shantytown of Abobo. One of the wings detached and crashed onto homes. All 20 passengers and 4 crew members were killed. Firefighters and rescue services were immediately deployed. At least 3 people were injured, identified as a mother and two of her children, whose all suffered 80% burns to their bodies. One person on the ground was killed.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
An air traffic controller at the airport claimed that the pilot of the aircraft had requested for a return to base, but he did not say why and did not announce an emergency. During its attempt, it crashed onto the shantytown. Locals stated that an engine of the plane was on fire, which raised a question on the condition of the engine. According to the brother of the pilot on board, the pilot had complained in recent weeks that he had made at least four emergency landings because of engine trouble with the aircraft. However, the President of RUTACA, Eugenio Molina, denied such claims, stating that the aircraft had a clean safety record since Rutaca first used it in 1977 and that there had been no recent forced landings.
The aircraft was not equipped with any flight recorders.
This incident marked the end of the C-47 era in Venezuela when the next day the INAC suspended DC-3 & C-47 operations in the country. They also ordered RUTACA Airlines to suspend its operations while the authorities performed a rigorous inspection of all its equipment and personnel, being delayed several weeks later. Near the crash site, a monument in honor of the victims, raised by order of the Government of the Bolivar State in 2005, was erected.
Text from the Wikipedia article “RUTACA Airlines Flight 225” (revision 1369974118, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: RUTACA Airlines Flight 225
- Article
- RUTACA Airlines Flight 225
- Revision
- 1369974118 · 2026-08-18 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q6164949
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record DCA01WA016
- Event ID
- 20010130X00370
- Case number
- DCA01WA016
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "RUTACA Airlines Flight 225" (page 53539738, revision 1369974118); merged with NTSB case DCA01WA016 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: place the Wikipedia infobox site links (Wikidata coordinates)
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record DCA01WA016
- Operation
- flight number in the article title
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: total_fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: ground fatalities
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (2)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "RUTACA Airlines Flight 225" and NTSB case DCA01WA016, matched by the same aircraft maker and operator, and a matching death toll and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.